The National Interest - The intellectual—and lightning rod—of the
isolationists

Charles A. Beard (1874–1948) was no stranger to controversy. His
iconoclastic 1913
Economic Interpretation of the Constitution
cast doubt on the disinterest of the Founders, and during World War I he
quit Columbia University in protest over the firing of a colleague. In the
1920s, he carved a niche as a critic on the left of the policies of the
Republican administrations. Franklin Roosevelt initially mollified him
somewhat, but Beard was always more comfortable in opposition than in
agreement, and he soon discovered grounds for criticizing the Democratic
president. In
The Idea of National Interest
and elsewhere, Beard attacked Roosevelt for building more ships and
otherwise laying the basis for intervention in Europe and Asia. To Beard,
foreign intervention was something that benefited not the American people
generally but only the rich and well-connected—the same groups he
criticized in
Economic Interpretation.

Beard's writings abetted the isolationism of the 1930s, yet where
much isolationist thinking was more emotional than rational, Beard offered
a carefully reasoned theory of nonintervention, based on a challenge to
received wisdom regarding foreign markets. Beard acknowledged that
nonintervention would require abandoning some foreign markets, and he
conceded this would have a negative direct effect on American incomes. But
he countered that much, perhaps all, of this loss would be recouped in
savings on weapons not required and wars not fought. And even if it were
not recouped, there was more to life, and to the national interest, than
money. "National interest involves stability and standard of life
deliberately adjusted to each other in a long time perspective," he
explained.

Beard applauded the neutrality laws but did not think they would hold.
"We're blundering into war," he predicted in 1938.
When war did come, Beard suspended his attacks on Roosevelt, but he
rejected the administration's high rhetoric and its enthusiasm
regarding America's partners. "I refuse to take the
world-saving business at face value and think that Churchill and Stalin
are less concerned with world saving than with saving the British empire
and building a new and bigger Russian empire."

For his forthrightness, Beard fell under intellectual obloquy. Erstwhile
allies criticized him for failing to condemn Hitler and the Japanese with
sufficient vigor. But he did not waver. "History to come will pass
judgment on them and me," he said.